Scotland Yard has been asked to investigate allegations that police were paid
by journalists to track mobile phone locations.

Metropolitan Police detectives must trawl through thousands of pages of records to establish whether officers unlawfully obtained the data for reporters working for the now defunct News of the World.

The request, made by a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, comes amid claims that journalists at the Sunday tabloid could buy phone locations for £300.

The technique, known as “pinging”, is an illicit practice said to have been carried out by News International staff.

Journalists on the tabloid – which ceased publishing earlier this month – are also said to have gained access to targets’ credit card accounts to see where they had been spending money, and so helping to locate them.

Yesterday , Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the authority, wrote to Scotland Yard requesting an audit of all cases where the Met obtained tracking data from mobile phone companies.

The “pinging” claims were first made by The New York Times, which has been investigating News International’s British newspapers since last year.

Sean Hoare, a reporter sacked from the News of the World in 2005, claimed that a news editor at the paper made payments of about £300 to police officers to “ping” the phones of targets. Mr Hoare was found dead earlier this week and there were fears that he had committed suicide.

A Scotland Yard spokesman declined to comment. News International has declined to comment on the claims.